Seeing Thang and Ken's great recent series has reminded me to post an update on the local bobcats here in Santa Barbara. I've been seeing them nearly every day for many weeks now and might have to go on a hard-drive spending spree soon!
I've had several amazing encounters with the two young bobcats. On one occasion, while looking for the mother, I found myself accidentally too close to the kittens. They were hanging out in an adjacent field just behind a small line of brush. I didn't want to invade their comfort zone so I slowly walked away from them with the intent of circling all the way around the field to photograph them from a distance. As I stopped to grab my jacket off the ground, I was shocked to look up and find the normally shy young male walking right up to me. He stopped about 5 feet away, looked up at me and took several deep sniffs. He must have determined I wasn't a threat because he nonchalantly turned around and walked away.
Two days ago while walking and being blinded by the sun, I nearly ran into the female kitten. She could tell that I couldn't see and stood motionless along the edge of the path. As I walked into the shadow of a tree, I was shocked to see her standing mere feet from the edge of the path. I let her wander away, but later refound her doing battle with a pocket gopher. I watched her slowly wear it down for nearly thirty minutes before she killed it and immediately disappeared into the brush.
Very nice series, Barry. Great story leading up to these images. I would imagine that one of these guys could put some serious hurt on you, if provoked. #3 and #6 are my favorites.
I also like #1 and #8
Great Environmental images..
In fact earlier this week I was joking with some fellow MAC users that Apple was
running out of the Big Cats for names and would probably have to go to the
Bobcat or Lynx next...
Maybe you got a photo here they can use?
I'd luv a closer crop of #8 for their Cover-shot
Please GO buy MORE HD's and keep making these Great images.. luv 'em
Barry -
You're one lucky guy to have daily encounters with a whole family of Bobcats. It's more of a crap-shoot with us down here. Most of the time, we come up empty.
Keep filling up those HDD. They're cheap, and those images you take are "priceless".
- Ken
